Tenacious
by Music Intuition
Summary: Because she will never give up, he has to keep trying; otherwise, she will never let him live it down. - FranticShipping; Ruby & Sapphire. Part of 'Boxes of Chocolates'.
1. ultraviolet

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_ultraviolet_

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It isn't very often, but sometimes Ruby swears that she's someone else under dirt, under the sweat and the scars and the callused, bruised knees.

The rest of the time, though, he tells her how beautiful, how simply _radiant_ she could be, if she were willing to touch up her face with a dab of blush, a tad of mascara, and a hint of eyeliner.

"Ya know, I _won't _let ya near me with that gunk!" she screeches, jumping up and grabbing onto a skinny branch and pulling herself up, up into the treetop. Away from Ruby, of course, who will not dare disturb his precious outfit with shenanigans.

Still, he brandishes the make-up high and proud. "Just once!" he calls out. Yes, even one time would freeze a beautiful image of her in his memory. And that would be enough even for him.

"No."

He sighs and slumps at the base of the tree, dejected by her blatant refusal. "Fine then. Some other day…" She throws an apple at his head from the top branches. It hits him with a thump, and he puts a hand on his cap in pain. "Hey, what was that for?"

"You're bein' an idiot!"

"Well, you're some sort of… of _barbarian_!" He too crosses his arms.

And for the longest time, they just sit there in half-annoyed, half-amused silence.

When the sun begins to set, he glances up to where Sapphire sits dangling her legs from the branch and smiles to himself. She hums quietly and stares off into the distance, no longer thinking about his attempt to paint her lips the color of blood. (Not that he wants to do _that_, since she has lovely lips all by herself.)

He stands and walks away, off toward home. He can live with that ultraviolet image of her, framed against the setting sun, and positively _glowing_.

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**_Author's Note_**: _This piece is the third part of the ten-portioned series 'Boxes of Chocolates'. Each encounter is a private love note, and each of the separately–published stories will cover a different shipping. Each chapter is a different drabble about the shipping; I'll do five per story, possibly more._

_The full list: SpecialShipping (Ambiguous), AgencyShipping (Menial), FranticShipping (Tenacious), ChosenShipping (Exploitable), PanderShipping (Retrospective), CommonerShipping (Parametric), FeelingShipping (Harmonic), OldRivalShipping (Stoic), MangaQuestShipping (Vivacious), and HaughtyShipping (Loquacious). I'm perfectly well aware that the publishing format I ended up deciding on is annoying, but I figured that dividing it up by shipping would be the best way for everyone involved to pick and choose which ones they would like to read, without being 'exposed' to opposing shippings. _

_Please take a look at the others, if you like this one, and enjoy. (For the record, they won't be published until I actually finish writing the first drabble for each of them. I didn't want to spam the forum completely, so… just keep an eye open, I guess. They'll be in the order above.) _

_Also, I should mention that these aren't necessarily sequential. I write what I can, based on the theme I'm given._


	2. safe

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_safe_

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When she hears the news, she is furious with him. Stupid idiot. What a fool. Got himself hurt, or catched, or… something. All she knows is that Ruby has vanished, and no one knows where he'd gone.

Her father tells her over breakfast in the middle of summer; stubborn to the end, she shouts at him, calls him a liar, runs out of the house and to his house. She climbs up his maple tree and peers into his bedroom, assuming she'll see him asleep in bed, arms strewn across his sheets and hair limp on his pillow. The only time she ever sees his hair without a hat is when he's asleep…

But he's gone. And so Sapphire climbs down from the tree.

Her father has followed her all the way across town, and he puts a hand over her back. Her shoulders tighten up, and Professor Birch prepares to comfort her as she weeps. But…

He expects tears, but he does not expect her to collapse, to scream out, eyes screwed shut as her voice crackles, lightning and fire and darkness. Her entire body coils and her face twists into a feral mask of fury.

The next day she's gone. Birch finds an illegibly scrawled note on her desk, but he doesn't need it to know where she went.

Sapphire is clever, and she is determined. She steals one of Ruby's hats for tracking purposes. Then she checks the secret base; she doesn't find him, but she sees footprints on his expensive rug, as well as signs of a scuffle. Whatever happened to him, didn't happen consensually.

She grips the hat and prepares to set off. Sapphire may not know where Ruby is, but she does know is that she won't rest until he's home safe again.


End file.
